Friday started with a festive seed-planting party in the greenhouse. Sarah, naturally, was geeking out over everything that was starting to germinate. Mizuno, yet more spinach, peas, carrots, cilantro, tomatoes, and possible a few more things that I'm forgetting were planted. We should hopefully see them sprouting up in about a week.
Since I generally have to go to school once in a while (by which I mean five days a week) I generally miss out on eating lunch at Riverview. Owing to a much-deserved spring break starting though, I was able to stay much later than normal. Thus I feel obliged to mention the delicious lunch thing I received. Green stuff, lentils and rice, and eggplant soup! Okay, that description was lacking and vague and possible not very flattering, I'll admit. But it was really good.
Next we wandered down to the ravine and trekked through the stream to where it empties out into the fox river picking up trash. A group of kids from Lawrence, including Nate the future farmer are hoping to turn it into a project, cleaning it, planting a diverse array of vegetation around it, and adding in fish as well. The stream is fed by run-off from all the surrounding streets which helps explain the incredible amount of plastic bags, cigarettes, lighters, cans, etc we found in it.
Also, a lot of the land around the ravine is woodsy and festered with buckthorn. Buckthorn is an invasive and aggressive plant that's woody and, as implied, thorny. Maybe someday a crew will go out and work on cutting it back and replanting with cuttings of dogwood, which is native, beautiful, not prickly, and nowhere near as aggressive. In that entire area, we'll need to plant conifers which can hold their own against the overwhelming brambles of the buckthorn.
On Saturday we started out with six and ended with two. I shouldn't play the sexist card but I'm totally going too. All the men ditched and by the end it was just Rachel and I scooping up mulch and and wheelbarrowing it to where it was needed--a four foot path along the muddy exterior of the hoop houses and then soaking up water in hoop house #4 in the furrows between the beds which had about six inches of standing water in them.
To be fair to those who left early though, sickness is aground in the Appleton area and the coldness isn't making it much easier. Plus; they got lots of work done before they had to leave which is always appreciated, and it's quite possible that they have lives and commitments and obligations outside playing in mud and other such activities at Riverview for hooligans. Luckily, I am not so burdened and can live life as a full-time hooligan.
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